FBI Releases Details of 2004 Talks with Saddam Hussein

U.S. security records reveal that former Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein told U.S. federal agents in 2004 that he allowed the
world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he did not want to
appear weak to Iran.

A research institute, the
National
Security Archive, on Wednesday obtained declassified accounts of all but one
of the FBI's 20 interviews and five "casual conversations" with Saddam that were
conducted after his December 2003 capture by U.S. forces.

In the released interview accounts, the former Iraqi president warned of what he
called Iran's "fanatic" leaders. He denounced Osama bin Laden as "a zealot" and
said he had no interactions with al-Qaida. He even acknowledged in a rare moment
of regret that he should have permitted that United Nations to witness the
destruction of Iraq's weapons stockpile in 1991.

U.S. forces later transferred Saddam to Iraqi custody and he was hanged in
December of 2006.

The interview accounts do not address chemical warfare in the Kurdish areas of
Iraq in 1987-1988, although an FBI progress report said that he was questioned
on the topic.